Proposed Gambling Reforms Did Not Resonate Well With Ukrainians, President Zelensky’s Ratings Slip Over 20 Percentage Points In Just Two Months

In what seems like the proposed reforms disenchanting Ukrainians with its comedian turned president Volodymyr Zelensky, a recent public poll concludes that the president’s ratings is down from 73 to 52% in just two months.

Not-in-favor ratings also jumped from 7 percent to 19 percent in November. The public poll was conducted and data compiled by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. The series of reforms proposed by the president seems to have played against him.

Bring Gambling Back

President Zelensky has been a strong proponent of legalizing gambling and recently Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers approved the government’s new Action Program. The program included a draft law which calls for the legalization of gambling in the country.

The draft gambling law also calls for gambling operators to pay a license fee of UAH 38m (£1.3m/€1.4mm/$1.5m) for operating a casino in Kiev, UAH 25m for a casino in one of the four other cities with a population of a million or more and UAH 12.5m for a casino anywhere else.

The president speaking in favor of the gambling reforms has advocated that with regulated gambling markets there will be a decline in illegal gambling and also the funds received in tax from gambling operations would provide for social programs.

“We will reduce the number of people gambling away the last of their money. These are mostly ordinary people.” – Volodymyr Zelensky.